# Government Lumping Premium Cigars with Cigarillos and Little Cigars



## MDSPHOTO (Sep 10, 2013)

HIGH SCHOOL BOYS NOW SMOKE CIGARETTES AND CIGARS AT SIMILAR RATESShare This​New CDC Data Reinforces Need for FDA Regulation of Cigars

I saw this headline, and more sensationalized versions of it, picked up all over the newswire this weekend and wanted to dive into the data a bit to understand how they collected it and interpreted it (You can read the full article below and follow the links as I did to get to the raw data). In essence the data comes from a standard Gov't survey of middle and high school kids done each year. One has to dig deep to find Question #40 , the ONLY question that I could find related to cigar smoking, which is provided in the following manner:

40.	During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke _*cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars*_?
 A.	0 days 
B.	1 or 2 days 
C.	3 to 5 days 
D.	6 to 9 days
E.	10 to 19 days 
F.	20 to 29 days 
G.	All 30 days

As you can clearly see the question does not try to distinguish between machine made and premium cigars, nor does it define for the students the difference between the three. I can tell you as freshman in high school I had no idea what the difference between these three was. Nor, unlike questions asked about cigarettes, does the survey try to ascertain where students obtained their cigars. With a final conclusion in most articles, including the attached, that ALL cigars need to be regulated.

The actual data states that there was a significant *decrease* in the use of "cigars" (their term not mine) from 1997-2011 and in actuality the usage from 2011-2013 has not grown amongst this age group, but rather, according to the authors, "stagnated". That conclusion is quite different from the press and advocacy groups that cigar use amongst high school boys is up and therefore all cigars should be regulated.

I hope our CRA friends have dug into this data and can present it for what it is, ambiguous at best.

High School Boys Now Smoke Cigarettes and Cigars at Similar Rates - American Legacy Foundation

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## Tobias Lutz (Feb 18, 2013)

The better question is:

40. During the past 30 days, on how many days did you smoke cigars, cigarillos, or little cigars..without any marijuana in them?


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## Emperor Zurg (May 6, 2013)

Of course they are. I knew this would happen. Cigarillos are an albatross. 
Go look on Thompson's site at the Remington 'little cigars' that come in a small, 20 ct. box.
They're cigarettes, not cigars. Any fool can see that.
Does anybody here expect the government to differentiate between the two?
http://t.thompsoncigar.com/product/...oryId=8335&categoryId=9099&subCategoryId=9099


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